


Derry's Monster

by uaigneach



Series: Dark Loser's Club AU [1]
Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Dead Georgie Denbrough, F/M, I have so many headcanons, M/M, Minor Bill Denbrough/Stanley Uris, Minor Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Minor Original Character(s), Monsters, Pennywise (IT) Being an Asshole, Post-Canon, even tho he's dead, i hate this, the losers club are all dark damaged kids okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-22 00:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13751967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uaigneach/pseuds/uaigneach
Summary: The tables had then turned, and IT stared up at them fearfully. “There are things that you don’t understand happening in this town.” IT had hissed. “Things that will come out of the shadows once I’m gone. Derry has always had a monster. Derry will always need a monster.”In the aftermath of killing IT, the Losers Club needs to move forward.





	1. Chapter 1

Bill really didn’t understand what was happening right now. Well, he did, he just didn’t know where he was supposed to go next. They’d come to save Beverly, and now they had. In the process, they’d killed IT and he’d found Georgie’s jacket. Of course, he’d subsequently become a complete and utter mess in front of all the others by breaking down and sobbing on the sewer floor surrounded by hundreds of rotting and decaying dead bodies while his friends hugged him.

Needless to say, he’d been having a day.

 

Well a year might be more accurate. Let’s backtrack a bit, shall we? Ever since Georgie had died, things had taken a turn for the worst in his life. His grades had plummeted, and he really couldn’t find it in himself to care. He was still in grade school, and there was exactly 1 high school in Derry. He’d be fine – you can’t flunk out of grade school anyways. Not in some shit hole town like this where the adults don’t care enough to expel you.

Teachers had been witnessing Henry Bowers torment kids for years. He wasn’t even the worst offender either! No, that title went to Patrick Hocksetter. Of course, Patrick was dead, and probably among the hundreds of corpses that had fallen to the ground around them. But that wasn’t the point. _That_ monster, was dead and gone. They didn’t have to worry about him anymore. They didn’t have to worry about Henry either. Probably not even his other cronies. Henry had been covered in an awful lot of blood, and Bill knew that the other two had always been more reluctant to hurt the Losers Club.

Humiliate them and intimidate them sure, but actually hurt them? No, they wouldn’t go that far. They just ended up being dragged along by little Henry Bowers. Everyone knew that. So they were all dead now… the gang that had ruled Derry’s high school was now dead and gone. The gang that had ruled Derry, was now dead and gone.

But they hadn’t been even a month ago.

A month ago, they’d still been terrorizing the Losers Club that wasn’t quite complete yet. Henry had backed off on harassing Bill during the school year because of what happened to Georgie, but Patrick sure hadn’t, so the bullying had remained the same. But Henry had made sure that Bill knew that as soon as summer was there that all bets were off. And for all intents and purposes, shit had hit the fan come the first day of summer break.

Kids had been going missing for a long time now, but the adults hadn’t cared enough past putting up a couple missing signs and remembering that they were gone every now and then. The police had done a half hearted search. Even that could be considered generous really. None of Derry really cared anymore.

 

And wasn’t that sad.

 

Most of the kids hadn’t cared either, but that wasn’t a surprise. That was the whole reason that the Losers Club began. It was a safe haven for all of those that did care, and that didn’t fit in with the masses. Richie was as blind as a bat without his bottle bottom glasses, Eddie had so much anxiety and placebo medications that he didn’t know what to do ever, Stan was the only Jewish kid in all of Derry, and Bill had a horrendous stutter because he’d been in a car accident as a child. They made quite the group, even if the others in their little town never thought so.

They’d met Ben Hanscom when he’d been running from Henry Bowers. He’d been in the process of carving into the boys fat flesh when Ben had managed to escape through the sewers and run into the first four of the Losers Club. He was new to Derry; he didn’t know the horrors like the Losers Club did. But he’d gone to the effort of going to the town’s pitiful library so that he could learn. That was good enough for the four, and so, Ben had joined the Losers Club.

After Ben had come Beverly Marsh. She had just been the sweetest little thing. Being all nice to Ben before the Losers had even met him. She’d been brave too, jumping off the cliff before all of them. But she’d also been so very scared, and so very damaged. Her father was a scary scary man, and he cared far more than any of their parents ever did.

Ben’s parents just wanted him to make friends, Richie’s were always working, Eddie’s mother was delusional and overprotective, Stan’s parents were too absorbed in their religion and being perfect to care about Stan, Bill’s parents hated his very existence and would trade him for Georgie in a heartbeat if they could, and Mike’s parents were dead.

Yes, Mike Hanlon. Part of the only black family in Derry and was home schooled. He had no friends, and Henry Bowers hated him. The Losers Club had saved him by initiating a rock war and winning. In exchange, Mike had shared with him the stories that his grandfather knew about Derry. He was quickly added into the ranks of the club, and then they were seven. A strong number; 7.

By that time, they’d all encountered the creature that they’d come to call IT. The deranged child eating clown that had been haunting all of them for weeks and hid in the sewers. He’d been haunting Derry for much longer though.

And so, Bill’s summer had been filled with fear, blood, and loss. He’d tried so hard to find little Georgie. He’d even dragged all of his friends into hell with him on that first excursion into the house. They’d been separated after that, all because of Bill’s stupid temper and feelings. Then Beverly had been taken and they’d all rallied together to come down to rescue her. Poor Stanley had been separated from all of them and had gotten attacked. Eddie had found him just in time to save his life. It was a pity that they couldn’t save him from what he saw, but all of them had been changed by the creature that hid in the sewers.

They weren’t quite children anymore, when they had entered the well and Mike had killed Henry Bowers. Were they even all that human anymore at the time? Humans can’t kill monsters. Only another monster, can destroy a monster.

They’d found Bev, and Ben had kissed her back to life. How poetic really. Bill wasn’t jealous or anything – he knew that Bev would be much better off with the feeling Ben who could truly care for her. Bill’s heart had been twisted before the clown had even appeared in his life. He was surprised that he’d made it this far. He’d split from the group, shortly before Bev regained confidence. He’d split before that, but he’d lurked around the corner to see. He’d known that the Losers Club would understand his absence. He had seen Georgie, and he needed to follow the image of his brother.

Georgie had talked to him, whining and crying softly as he claimed that he just wanted to go home. Bill had wanted to make sure that Georgie had gotten home. But he hadn’t been there, and IT had. So that wasn’t his Georgie and he said so, shortly before putting a bolt right through the imitation's forehead. The lack of shocked gasps from the friends that stood behind him told him that they understood and that they would have done the same thing. In that moment they’d tried to kill IT, but they’d failed rather miserably.

IT had gotten its hands on Bill and had held him close to its cold rotting body. It whispered ploys of how if the Losers just left Bill to die, then it would leave them all alone. Of course there was no guarantee that this was the truth, but it was nice that the clown had bothered to try to fake them out. Kudos for the effort and all that. Bill had told them to leave because it was all his fault. At least, in his mind it had all been his fault.

The others – even angry, angry Richie – disagreed. Richie had given a small touching speech, and then they’d all attacked without any fear left in them. Anger and fury fueled them, and all the fear that had made them human had been purged from their bodies as they attacked and beat the clown demon. The demon had been severely weakened by their lack of Fear, and they’d all beat it into submission very quickly.

The tables had then turned, and IT stared up at _them_ fearfully. “There are things that you don’t understand happening in this town.” IT had hissed. “Things that will come out of the shadows once I’m gone. Derry has always had a monster. Derry will always need a monster.” Then Bill had hit it over the head with a pipe, smashing in its skull and decapitating it for good measure. The clown was dead and they were alive. That should have been the end of things, but it really wasn’t.

The floating bodies of dead children had all ceased floating, falling out of the sky and landing in bloody heaps in the sewage around them. The Losers Club had sat down on the wooden island in the center to avoid getting anymore soiled than they were now. Even Eddie hadn’t complained about being covered in sewage at that point. They were too stunned that they’d actually done it. They’d killed IT. But the victory still felt hollow as Bill clutched the small yellow raincoat tightly in his bleeding fist.

“You huh-heard the c-c-clown.” He stuttered out as they all sat in a circle. “D-d-d-derry n-needs a monster. A-an-and now, IT i-i-i-s gu-gone.” He said, staring at the piles of kids around him. He was surprised at the fact that this sight really didn’t bother him that much. He was sure that he felt a never ending ache in his heart by clutching onto that yellow jacket, but seeing the bodies of countless others felt surreal. He didn’t know them. They were dead, and that was it. Richie looked at him sharply.

“Well what’ya suggest we do about it then? We’re just kids, Bill! It’s still fucking summer break!” he yelled, irritated as he scratched at the drying blood on his arms. In the end, IT had bled quite a bit, and they were all covered in it. Well except Stan, but he was covered in his own blood.

Eddie shook his head and reached over to slap Richie upside the head. “Idiot! Give up on that summer shit already. It’s getting old.” But the point still remained that Derry no longer had a monster, and the magic that had held things together was slowly unraveling. Their parents would probably be wondering where they were soon. Eddie turned to look at Bill. “Well? What’s our next move? You’re right, the clown does have a point, and then there’s the fact that the Bowers gang is gone too.”

“A power vacuum.” Stan said absently as he lay his head against Mike’s shoulder absently. “If the positions are not filled, things will come to Derry to fill them.”

Bill nodded. That had been what he’d been thinking too. “Wu-w-w-we need to f-fill them. S-suh-sometimes, a story doesn’t need a hero. R-right now, Derry h-has had enough of h-heroes. W-what D-derry needs is a monster. Only m-muh-monsters can kill monsters.” Bill said, happy that his stutter was beginning to dwindle to a minimum now. It was still present, but he didn’t think that it would ever go away, but that’s fine. Yelling that final ‘f-f-fuck you!’ had been incredibly satisfying. The weak had killed the strong. “We’re not kids anymore. We can be Derry’s monster. We can take over the place left behind b-by Bowers and the others.” Bill said decisively.

The others stared at him shocked for a moment, the urge to immediately balk at the idea was strong, but then they really thought about Bill’s words. They really couldn’t find a fault in the explanation Bill had given. They’d just beaten a monster to death with various metal objects. Heck, they’d all enjoyed, bashing that fucker's skull in. Normal people didn’t do that. Normal people would be bothered by that, but they really weren’t. Would it really be that bad, to be the town’s monster?

“Okay, but how?” Beverly was the first to speak, looking up at Bill. Even after all the shit that he’d dragged them into over this summer, they all still turned to them. It was unspoken and forever certain; Bill was the leader. Bill’s word was law. They had followed him into hell and now they were going to lead it alongside him.

Bill shrugged, letting Mike answer for him. “Everything will fall into place. It’s how Derry works. We killed the last monster, the rights to the positions belong to us. Derry will know this.” He said with a certainty and a quiet confidence that hadn’t been present in him before today. “When we stopped acting human, we stopped being human. The change has already begun, you can smell it in the air. Things are shifting in Derry, and the town is becoming accustomed to our presence; to how things will be from now on.”

And it really was.

“We’ll mu-meet back at the l-l-lake where we huh-had the r-rock war at n-noon tomorrow.” Bill said softly as he stood up. “We can d-decide what to d-do past this then.” There was a note of finality in his voice, and since Bill’s word was law, the Losers Club agreed. Deciding that they were Derry’s new monster and the it group (oh wow the puns – Richie would have a field day with this later when he was less horrified by what he’d seen), but it was deciding how to do that and how they were going to move on that would take time. Right now, the group needed sleep and to compose themselves emotionally. Most importantly, it was after 7, and the parents would start noticing now that the haze that IT had had them all under was gone.

Besides, they still needed to find their way out of the maze that was the sewers. That was something to be worried about, so they decided to get a head start on making their way through the sewers. The adrenaline was still rushing through their veins, although they are on the last dregs of it and will probably be in the middle of a crash as soon as they get back to civilization. Bill lead the group through the tunnels, moving with a strange sort of confidence as if he knew where he was going.

Not even Eddie was panicking at being covered in gross sewage as they all sloshed through the tunnels. There was nothing to panic about, nothing to fear. Stan wasn’t glaring at them anymore, and Bill had a feeling that Stan would forgive them for not being there until the last moment soon enough. You can’t really hate that which makes you whole. They were all part of each other now, whether they liked it or not. They walked in silence, sort of just basking in the fact that IT was gone. Even in the sewers, the air smelled cleaner.

Sooner than expected, they saw daylight, and Bill lead them out of the sewers and into the quarry. They blinked slightly, but the sun had already set even if the light had not fully disappeared behind the horizon line by now. “We’re about a 10 minutes walk from the house if we want to get our bikes.” Stan said softly as he gazed over into the distance. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he did and no one questioned him. They just began walking, knowing that they were heading towards the crack house that they’d left their bikes at.

 

* * *

 

They’d split directions after grabbing their individual bikes. No one said ‘goodbye’ or ‘I’ll see you later’ or anything like that. It just wasn’t needed. Bill had made it home exactly 9 minutes after 8 PM. He parked his bike at the side of the house, tucking Georgie’s coat around the handlebars with care. His parents didn’t need to see that.

He walked around to the front of the house, knocking on the door. He’d left his key at home – he hadn’t locked the door when he left due to being in such a rush – his parents must have locked it once they got home. There was a the telltale thumps of hurried footsteps and then the door was wrenched open to reveal the his frazzled parents. Their hair was askew and there was a slightly wild look in their eyes as they stared at him in a mix of shock and desperation.

They took a second to take in his appearance – ripped clothes with blood stained edges, tear tracks running down his face and some bruising beginning to form around his neck from IT’s grip. He must look like a mess to them. He was expecting them to yell at him, but he was (pleasantly) surprised when instead his mother lunged forwards and pulled him into a tight hug.

“Oh my god, Bill! I’m so glad your safe! When we couldn’t find you after 7 we were so worried.” They’d told him as he stood awkwardly on the step. He didn’t return the embrace; too shocked to really know what to do. Something had changed in the very air of the town, and it had to do with IT’s absence. They’d known that IT was the shape shifter, and in some part of their minds, they’d known that it was IT’s power that had made all the adults forget. It would take some time for the Losers Club to get used to adults that paid attention to them; to adults that cared. Although reluctant to admit it, Bill was definitely thrown for a loop by his parent’s reactions.

She pulled back to take another look at him before dragging him into the house, closing the door and being extra careful to lock it behind her. “What were you doing out so late young man! You had us worried sick!” she scolded, tears beginning to gather in her eyes. He was stunned, he hadn’t seen her this emotional since Georgie’s funeral. “You know the police set the curfew for a reason! Where have you been.” His father briefly left the room before coming in with the med kit. He looked at his last remaining son with such a look of tenderness and concern that Bill almost flinched backwards. It just looked so… _wrong_ to see such a look on his father’s face.

“I…” he trailed off, staring up at his parents. He didn’t know what to say, they hadn’t decided on any cover stories, so he decided that he’d stick close enough to the truth. He wasn’t that good of a liar, and with his stutter he could only do so much. He was sure that Richie would’ve handled this better. He should have accepted the offer for Richie to go home with him. The trashy mouthed boy would know what to do in this situation. “I was walking home, past the house on Neibolt street on my way home.” He said slowly, “when I thought I heard something weird. I-I-I didn’t have t-time to turn around. He was there.” He said, his stutter only returning during the second half of the conversation.

His parents looked panicked as they exchanged a glance or two, his mother beginning to wipe at the scrapes on his knees and forearms. “He?” his father prompted, his hands clutching at his pants.

Bill nodded, swallowing painfully. The bruises around his neck were really beginning to hurt. “Yeah, h-huh-he hit me o-over the head and d-dragged me away i-i-into the house. He tried to strangle me, and I-I-I g-got a good l-l-look at him.” He whispered, tears beginning to come to his eyes unbidden. Whatever, it made his story seem more believable with him being emotional. “Mom, I think h-he’s the one who killed G-georgie.” He whispered that last part, staring with wide eyes at the wall.

As expected, his mother burst into tears at the very mention of his little brother’s name. Surprisingly, his father didn’t react with anger like he would have before. Instead, he joined Bill’s mother in crying softly as they stared at their remaining son. “We need to call the police so you can tell them everything you know.” He said, rubbing his wife’s back as she cried. “So that they can find that horrible man.”

Bill decided to take things one or two steps farther. “I-I wouldn’t call him a muh-man. He was a _monster_.” His lack of a stutter at the last sentence really hit home with his parents. He could see it in their eyes. Almost simultaneously, his father moved towards the kitchen to call the police and his mother pulled him into a tight hug, seemingly forgetting that he was a bit beat up. Admittedly, it was just some cuts and scrapes from running through the sewers (he must smell something awful, but his parents didn’t seem to notice past draping a towel over his shoulders, but that might have just been their attempt at a shock blanket based off what they’d seen on TV) and the neck bruising. That was going to be a bitch to deal with tomorrow. He doubted it would vanish anytime soon.

He distantly heard his father frantically calling the police and telling them that his son had almost been killed by the man that was suspected to be behind all of the missing children. Bill frowned, he would have to tell them that they were not missing. They were dead. He turned to his mom and stared up at her with an oddly apathetic gaze. He was tired and parents that cared were exhausting. “M-mom? Can I huh-h-have a shower? I don’t want to feel his hands on m-m-me.” He whispered, not wanting to speak too loudly.

He'd never really been all that fond of speaking loudly, but it would be best to try and save his voice. He knew it would be hard to talk tomorrow.

His mother froze up as he spoke, stiffening to the point where Bill needed to shift uncomfortably in her arms. She was staring at him with wide eyes as she absorbed what he’d said. Tears began to fill her eyes as she stared at him and he frowned again. No, he didn’t mean for her to cry. He felt filthy. He’d been running through the sewers all day and he probably still had the clown’s stupid blood on him in spots. His mother had doused all of his open wounds with hydrogen peroxide, but that didn’t mean the rest of him was clean. He didn’t want his cuts to get infected.

That would suck.

“Oh honey,” she whispered wetly – what a gross way to describe a voice, he could have used moist, but it wouldn’t have fit would it have – before gently pulling his head into her chest. He blinked. Why was she so upset? He almost died sure, but it wasn’t like he actually _had_. Plus it wasn’t like they’d been all that fond of him for a while now. It wasn’t like him being bruised and going missing for a day was all that odd a sight now…

Hell, their first journey into the quarries had been a mess all in its own. Did his parents notice or care then? No. None of their parents had cared after their first attempt at entering the Neibolt house, so he doesn’t see the point in caring now? On some fundamental level, he understands that a lot of their willful obliviousness can be attributed to Pennywise’s powers, but that was just how his parents had been. It had been how all of their parents had been.

Well except maybe Ben who had genuinely nice parents and Eddie who’s mother had been an absolute helicopter parent nightmare. And Bev’s dad had been pretty intense too... and Stan’s parents had this obsession with him being a model student. So basically the only neglectful parents had been his and Richie’s because Mike’s parents were dead. Damn. He wonders how they’re all being received by their own guardians.

He gently extricated himself from his mother’s hold and began to walk towards the stairs. “I don’t want the s-sewer wuh-w-water to get into my cuts. Call me d-d-down when the puh-police get h-h-here?” He made it about two steps up the stairs when his mother gently grabbed his arm again.

“Honey, we’re going to need you to be wait okay? The police might need it as evidence.” She insisted. He frowned. He didn’t think that his appearance would help all that much. And it wasn’t even like the police were going to find anything either. Pennywise was dead and now they’d taken his place. Hmm, does that mean that they’d need to kill children? That’s a problem to worry about another day.

He decided to just leave it be. “Fine, b-b-but at l-least let me use a c-cloth. I f-feel gross.” He declared. His mother nodded placatingly and called for his father to grab a washcloth.

He was in the process of wiping his face down when there was a knock at the door. His father quietly rose to get the door. Bill didn’t care to watch, he just didn’t want to have the grime in his ears anymore. That was just gross. He really pities Eddie who had been dunked in it. The worst that he’d done was get thrown into the wall. Even Stan was going to have a bitch of a time cleaning those cuts on his face. What did he care what the police wanted? He needed to get them on the path of finding Pennywise, but who knows how long it would take them to actually do anything about it.

Two police officers entered the living room and took a seat across from him. His father entered after and then sat on his other side so that Bill was sandwiched in between his parents and getting their couch covered in dirt and sewage. “Bill, was it? Can I call you Bill?” the first police officer started, leaning forwards to look him in the eye while the other pulled out a notepad and pen. “I’m Officer Collins, and I’m here to ask you a few questions.”

Bill opened his mouth to respond, but his mother cut him off, causing him to pout slightly. “He has a bad stutter, so please be patient with him.” She warned, wrapping her arm around his shoulders only to be shrugged off as Bill scooched away slightly.

“W-wuh-what do you want t-to know?” he says, instead of acknowledging his mother’s disappointed face. The two cops exchanged a glance before looking back at him, a visible look of pity in their eyes.

“Just tell us what happened. We’ll ask you some questions along the way.”

Bill nodded, taking another breath before beginning to tell the police the watered down version of the events of the summer.

 

* * *

 

“I called the police as soon as I got home, telling them that I had been out with friends all day and when I got home that my dad had been attacked. He’s in the hospital right now. He should be home in a week or two at most. They just want to watch him because head injuries can be tricky.” Bev said after a moment. They were all sitting on the grass, looking out at the small stream and basking in the summer sun. “I don’t think he’ll be much of a problem anymore. There was just this look in his eyes when he saw me.”

Ben leaned into her side, tucking his head under her chin in affection. “That’s good.” She accepted the gesture calmly, patting his head a couple times and just sitting there. No one blinked an eye at the sight. They knew that Ben was the type to seek physical affection and that ever since he’d come to Derry his parents had been working more and paying less attention to him. They were fine with him seeking affection from them.

“My mother’s always been crazy.” Eddie said, taking his turn to share his story. “She didn’t really act much different. She pretty much fainted at the sight of me covered in sewage, but she didn’t kick up too much of a fuss about my not answering any of her questions. She just shoved me in the shower and insisted that I take my medicines. I flushed them all down the toilet while she slept.”

Mike nodded in agreement with Eddie. “My folks didn’t react all that oddly either. They knew I was getting beat up by the Bowers Gang, so they didn’t question my scrapes too much – just quietly patching me up. It was my grandfather that was the weird one though. He gave me a look, like he knew something had happened. Like I had changed and he couldn’t figure out why.”

Richie flopped backwards. “My parents weren’t home.” He said simply, lying spread eagle in the grass and closing his eyes behind the glasses. For once, Richie didn’t feel like filling the silence with words. He was just... enjoying the moment. Whatever the moment was.

“My parents weren’t either. They’ve been visiting some friends in the next state over.” Stan told them quietly, rubbing at the scabs that dotted the sides of his face. “The aunt that had been staying in the house to watch me wanted to take me to the hospital, but I talked her out of it, telling her that I was tired at that we’d just lost track of time while in the quarry. She let me sleep and she was out when I left this morning.” At Eddie’s stricken look he rolled his eyes and said, “don’t worry, I did clean out my wounds. I know basic first aid.”

Eddie scowled at him, but nodded at him like he’d done a good thing. This earned yet another eye roll.

“I sent the p-police after a ghost.” Bill told them quietly, barely stuttering anymore. He knew it would come back later at a random time, but for the moment, his voice was reasonably steady. “M-my parents asked t-too many questions. I t-told them a clown h-huh-had kidnapped me and took me to a room f-full of the missing k-kids and tried to strangle me. I managed to make a daring escape.” He gestured to his throat that had darkened into a lovely deep purple with blue hues around the edges. “K-kind of hard to explain this otherwise.”

Beverly raised an eyebrow at him impressed before smiling. “Good. Did I forget to mention that I thought I walked past a clown as I went home?” her smirk widened as the others turned to her. She looked at all of them before putting on a fake innocent expression. “What? It’s about time the adults started looking for that clown. There’s no danger for them anymore. The clown is dead.” She pointed out.

Bill had to agree.

“Y-y-yes. It gives us more room to b-breathe. We c-can figure out what we’re doing. School starts in a week.” Bill told them. Ben frowned at him.

“They’re going to notice that the Bowers Gang is missing. And Mike is still being home schooled.” He pointed out, gesturing lazily at the other teen who nodded.

“I couldn’t convince my grandfather to put me into normal high school. He insisted that this town wasn’t safe.” He said, “I’m lucky that he doesn’t want to leave.” This created a problem for all of them; what to do.

Bev rolled her head over to look at Bill once more. “Well, so far the police only know that a clown has been kidnapping kids and assaulted both my dad and Bill here. They have no idea that the rest of us are involved, so I think they’ll try to keep us out of it. We can just lay low for a bit for the next week and then walk into the school and take over. Everyone will notice a shift in us. They won’t cross us.” She said smiling up at him. He found himself smiling back.

Her smile was so sweet and contagious. How could he ever help himself? “T-that’s a good idea Bev.” He said, grinning as she preened at his acknowledgement. “We can talk more later in the sewers. Those’ll b-be our headquarters f-f-for now while the huh-house is being investigated.” The others nodded. “I n-n-need to get back to the house. The p-p-police want me to m-m-meet with a sketch artist.” He rolled his eyes and stretched as he got up.

“Wait, I’ll come with you.” Stan said softly, moving closer to Bill and standing to his left. Bill stared at him for a moment, before inclining his head and leaning into his side a bit. “We shouldn’t split up. Splitting up is what got us into this mess, so maybe we should try our best to pair up. Mike, I know that you can’t but the rest of you.” Stan said plainly, both surprising them and not surprising them in the least.

They’d all changed down in those sewers, but it was Stan that had probably changed the most. The scared look that used to be ever present in his eyes was gone and replaced with something visibly unreadable. They knew it to be determination. They could feel that Stan cared for them and wouldn’t run away now. He knew that he was it in for good and he was determined to carry his own weight. They realized that they could feel the connection to each other now. It seems that that might be the reason for Stan’s sudden courage.

Certain ties were stronger than others. Ben and Bev were content to hold hands and lay in the sun – like sunshine on a calm day, and while Richie and Eddie’s was a bit more chaotic and messy, it was no less strong; just different – like a storm. Bill and Stan’s was different too, but more similar to Eddie and Richie’s, if theirs had been an organized chaos swimming beneath the surface of a calm lake. Mike was the soothing presence who had a similar if somewhat distant bond with all of them equally. They would later learn to identify this feeling as Love later on. For now it was just a bond.

That bond was probably the only reason that Bill had accepted Stan’s offer to join him. He didn’t quite know how he was going to explain this to his parents – he doubted that his parents would take to seeing one of the others in the Loser’s Club with injuries all that well – but that problem could be dealt with later. For now, the two of them stood to leave.

The others looked like they wanted to rise with him, but the lull of the sun was too strong and they ended up staying where they were as they waved him goodbye.

 

* * *

 

After that things got significantly busier for the Losers Club. Ben had been right to say that people would notice the fact that the Bowers Gang was gone. It turns out that Henry had killed the Sheriff – his father – and the rest of his cronies before coming after them, and that was just another couple of names added to the long list of deaths that were now being blamed on Pennywise the dancing clown thanks to Bill. But now the teenage populous of the school knew that the resident bully gang was gone.

As expected, they’d walked into the high school on their first day and they were greeted with the sight of a new group of teenagers with bleached hair and too big leather jackets. One still had braces. They looked like children dressing up in daddy’s clothes. In other words, pathetic. Bill had nearly burst out laughing at the sight of them.

The Losers Club had of course, walked into the school together dressed to impress. With perfectly done up outfits (courtesy of Beverly who with her newfound freedom from her father, found that she quite liked fashion) and hair. Bev had done her make up and was wearing a confident smirk as she walked on Bill’s left side. Stan was on his right, and Eddie and Richie stood beside him. Ben had fallen to Bev’s own left, looking bored as he walked down the halls of the new high school. Immediately, everyone’s eyes had been on them.

They’d done a lot of maturing over the summer, and it really showed in their appearances and how they walked. They looked like they didn’t give a fuck about what happened and they walked like they already ruled the place. The new gang didn’t like that and approached them, blocking off the hallway so that they were forced to stop. Everyone else in the hallway stared at them, watching the stand off like people would watch a train wreck in process; with extreme interest and no urge to interfere.

(There were quiet whispers about the Losers Club too. There had been rumours going around about how Bill had escaped the child murderer and that the other kids had somehow obviously been involved. The scar tissue around Stan’s face in the shape of teeth as well as Eddie’s still broken arm only adding fuel to the rumours. The Loser’s Club didn’t mind this. People were going to talk, at least at this point nothing bad was being said about them anymore. For now, it was just speculation as to what had happened to the losers at the bottom of the social latter over the summer.)

“Hey losers! There’s some new kings in town. Show some proper respect.” The leader said, looking down at Bill and trying to act all tough. He sidled up to the point where he was practically standing chest to chest with the shorter teen. Him and his cronies looked like they were slightly nervous but determined to do this all the same. Richie found this funny, as they were pitiful imitations of the Bowers Gang – which had actually been filled with psychopaths. But, he supposes, that’s them now. And how original, this new gang picking on the same group as their predecessors.

Back when Henry had been in power the losers had never been able to fight back. Now... now was different. Now they had power and a whole new sandbox to play in. Things would be different, this time around. Of that, they were all certain.

Bill stared at him for a moment before glancing over at Beverly. Then he started chuckling softly, his laughter echoing through the eerily silent hallway.

“R-r-really now. How interesting.” He said as his giggle fit subsided. He looked up at the leader – noting his bleached and spiked hair as well as the sunglasses that he had placed on the collar of his shirt – to see that he was staring at him with an unsettled face. But honestly, so was everyone except for the Loser’s Club. That was to be expected. Bill Denbrough didn’t laugh like that – that laugh sounded unhinged.

If they didn’t know better than to say this out loud, he was sure that the others would have remarked how very Pennywise like the laugh sounded. It didn’t help either that Bill had a calm self-satisfied smirk on his face as he stared up at the pathetic Bowers wannabe. He glanced around at the others from the Loser’s Club having silent conversations with each of them before swinging his head to look at the bullies so sharply that people didn’t even see him move.

They jumped back in shock, looking both sheepish and enraged at the fact that they’d acted all scared in front of everyone. “Yeah!” the main bully said, trying desperately to recover from the unconscious blunder that he’d made by showing fear. He still hadn’t understood that he was the prey and not the predator yet. That would be fixed soon enough. “And what’s a shrimp like you gonna do about it? B-b-buh-bill?” he mocked, stepping closer to the unassuming Bill.

That was a mistake.

In a flash, Bill moved and had kicked the leader in the nuts, dropping him to the ground instantly. In the same moment, Stan fluidly moved around him and punched one of the lackeys in the nose and he went down. The other two lackeys didn’t really know what to do now that the stuttering push over and the no nonsense Jewish kid just downed two of their gang in about 2 seconds. Nobody had even seen Bill move. The other Losers were a bit shocked that Bill had reacted like that, but they didn’t show it and just pretended that everything was going according to plan.

And for the most part, it really was.

 

The lackey looked up at Bill and Stan standing above him while clutching his nose. “I think you just broke my nose!” he gasped in shock, his voice thick and nasally as blood dripped down his face. The leader was still clutching his family jewels and rolling around on the ground. Slowly but surely, everyone around them began to snicker as the _Losers Club_ took down the new self proclaimed kings of the school. This was _not_ a good way for them to be establishing dominance. They just got owned in front of practically the entire school.

Bill gazed dispassionately down at the trio, his face a stony mask. This allowed for Beverly to speak in his stead. “Nowboys, you’re obviously outclassed. I suggest that you step down and kindly leave the throne to us. We’ll take much better care of it than you did.” Her smile was all teeth, and many people who had fantasized about her sucking them off immediately regretted those thoughts. She would bite. And now, she had the power that made her untouchable. If Stuttering Bill could drop people just like that, they didn’t want to cross what the others could do.

Even Eddie looked like he could kill a man, and he was tiny! What on earth had happened to them over the summer? Unfortunately for the school populous, they’d never find out. Not the full story anyways.

 

 

* * *

 

The Bower’s gang had been infamous amongst the residents of the town, and as their main target, the Losers Club had been well known around Derry as well. The news of the Losers Club rising up in the world spread fast. Soon everyone knew that the Losers Club wasn’t something to be messed with, because there was something seriously wrong with them. They knew the town like the back of their hands – even Ben – and they seemingly appeared out of nowhere if they were mentioned. It freaked everyone out, but no one wanted to say anything, because the Losers were dangerous.

What unsettled them the most was the rumours that the kids hung out in the sewers. The sewers, where the police were currently searching for the bodies of the missing kids? It was just rumours, so there was nothing that people could really do about it… but it was still unfavourable. Bill’s parents had tried to talk to him about it, but all it took to get them to ignore it was a little suggestion here and there. They were Derry’s new monster. As the French say, ‘vouloir c’est pouvoir’ and all that.

The police hadn’t addressed those rumours as of now, and they didn’t seem too concerned about it. The curfew still hadn’t been lifted, and no parents were reporting any children missing, so right now, they had reason to believe that the clown might have gone into hiding. Banning kids from the quarry now would seem weird considering that the killer had stopped and they hadn’t banned them from the quarry when the killer was active. And that also gave them the issue on how they would enforce that ban. None of the police department had seen the Losers Club outside of the few minutes before and after school either, which wasn’t all that reassuring.

However, everyone knew that the quarry and the sewers were the Losers' territory, so the children stayed away – something that the parents of Derry were grateful for. The Losers Club was dangerous, and Bill had escaped the murderer before (his ring of bruises around his neck proved that) and the parents of the others were pretty confident that they could handle themselves. Eddie’s mother protested, but Eddie leveled a stare at her and proceeded to remove his cast before leaving the house to join the others in the sewers once more.

He didn’t need it anymore anyways.

 

* * *

 

Officer Collins was a simple man. He had gone to the police academy straight from high school, and he’d lived in Derry practically his entire life. He was considered young, to be so seasoned on the police force, but he knew Derry like the back of his had. Well, he’d thought that he’d known Derry like the back of his hand.

When kids first started disappearing in Derry again, all of the sheriff’s department had been confused. Sure Derry had a history of being bad with disappearances and accidents, but surely there wasn’t anything here now. But then kids kept disappearing, and it was just missing poster after missing poster. And the thing is, nothing was being done about it. They filed their reports and simply moved on with giving the occasional traffic ticket and watching the curfews. It was odd to say the least, but Officer Collins hadn’t seen anything wrong with it at the time.

Looking back on it now, he really didn’t understand why he’d been so okay with not actually investigating the disappearances. It was simply absurd! There had been a grand total of 23 missing kids during the summer, and they’d done nothing more than do a couple interviews and set a curfew. It was inconceivable to a cop like Officer Collins.

 

Bill Denbrough had almost been missing kid number 24.

 

When he’d gotten the call from a frantic Mr. Denbrough, Officer Collins had been shocked. As the most senior officer in the area other than the Sheriff (who hadn’t come in for any of his shifts in a couple days), he’d been in charge of delegating and organizing the chaos that had descended upon the Sheriff’s office. Not only did they all suddenly realize that they still had _twenty three missing kids_ that they needed to track down, but that they hadn’t done enough in their investigations. There was missing reports and lack of evidence that would normally be attributed to a case like any of those, and they didn’t know what to do.

They needed to find those kids, and here was Mr. Denbrough calling into the office in a tizzy over the fact that his son – the one that wasn’t missing because wasn’t that just a kicker – had almost been kidnapped by a clown. What the hell was happening in this town? Sure there was accidents, but was it always this bad? Officer Collins couldn’t really remember, and that was what scared him.

So he’d assured Mr. Denbrough that they would head on right over, and he’d gone personally to take the boy’s statement. Poor little Bill Denbrough had been strangled by a man who called himself Pennywise the clown, and the clown had shown him dead bodies! Bill was real tight-lipped about talking about how he escaped, but Officer Collins hadn’t really cared about that at the time. It wasn’t what was important. What _was_ important was the fact that the kid had apparently been taken to what he called the ‘old well house’. Something that they’d later learn was more commonly known as the Neibolt house.

They’d hired an artist and then asked the boy to describe the clown to the best of his ability, and the picture that they’d gotten had truly been sinister. It wasn’t a nice clown, that much was obvious. Officer Collins can’t even imagine how horrible it must have been for the kid – to be strangled by some mad man.

 

They hadn’t been able to get much done because while they were processing information, someone had bothered to go over to the Sheriff’s place to look for him and they’d found the corpse of both the Sheriff and the teens that the town had come to know as the Bowers Gang. Their murder had taken priority because they couldn’t exactly do anything without a Sheriff to decide. Officer Collins still wasn’t seasoned enough to be promoted past Officer. So he’d done by what the protocol told him, and he’d called in for help from the bigger cities. He’d told them of the situation, and high ups had responded with transferring a seasoned officer to be the new Sheriff.

No one really liked the idea of an outsider leading them, but there was nothing to be done about it. They were overwhelmed and understaffed as it is. If they wanted to have any hope at solving these murders, then they would have to trust in this Sheriff Olsen. They didn’t have t like it, but they did have to obey.

Still, the name Sheriff City-Boy definitely passed through their lips many times behind the Sheriff’s back. He knew about crime, but he didn’t know anything about how Derry worked. (They ignored about how they weren’t really sure about what was happening either.)

 

But with the arrival of the new Sheriff, they were able to finally begin investigating the various cases. Officer Collins was put in charge of looking for the missing children. Not a fun case to handle, as he had to deal with all of the suddenly incredibly worried parents. They’d looked all over the quarry, having that be suggested by Mr. Denbrough due to his son’s own hypothesis and research. They hadn’t been able to find anything, so with much reluctance, Officer Collins had taken a couple other officers with him and gone to the Neibolt house.

The house no longer looks as horrifying as they used to think it did, but there was a certain air about it that made it feel sinister. It was like something horrible had happened there – and if the Denbrough kid was right, then something bad had happened here. Great. They reluctantly approached the house, armed with flashlights and their handguns.

Opening the door revealed a dusty worn down place. There was broken wood and shards of glass littered everywhere and absolutely covered in cobwebs. It looked like someone hadn’t set foot in this place for decades. That initial impressions made Officer Collins begin to doubt the Denbrough kid’s story, but then they saw the muddy shoe scuffs on the dusty floor. There was more than one set of scuff marks which made Denbrough’s story seem all the more credible and relevant. They went farther into the house, following the marks on the ground.

This lead them into the basement because of course it did. With every step they took, the more the house groaned under their weight. It made him nervous, because if they fell and broke limbs, then there was no way of getting back up, and it didn’t look like there was an easy way to get out of the basement. This wasn’t a good idea.

 

Despite all reservations, they did indeed make it down the stairs and into the badly lit basement. Unfortunately, they had to press on, so press on they did. At the end of the room, there was a brick well in a serious state of disrepair. Like the entire house was awful, but the well looked to be about a century older than the already historic shack built around it. There was a small spot on the side where the bricks were missing that served as a foothold if they were to climb down into it.

They really shouldn’t…

 

But there was a rope attached to a modern pulley system on the ceiling. The rope was just innocently hanging into the well. It had knots tied every now and then and looked like the thick kind of rope that people used when spelunking or some shit. If the pulley system held, it would hold their weight. All the same, they should go one at a time. With great reluctance, Officer Collins took a hold of the rope, shoving his gun in its holster and sticking the flash light in between his teeth so that he could begin climbing down the rope.

He climbed down a bit, turning his head so that the light shone along the sides of the wall. He did his best to not look down as there was only inky blackness and no discernible bottom. The rope didn’t go down far enough, and he began to panic a bit because he didn’t know what to do next. Luckily, that’s when he saw the tunnel in the side of the well. He swung into it, having a bumpy landing, but not falling down the well, so that was good enough for him. “There’s a tunnel on the side of the well wall! I’ll wait for you to catch up!” he called up to the others. And one by one, the other officers made their way down and into the small tunnel.

Crawling through the tunnel, they eventually came to the end of the small tunnel and it branched off into a bigger tunnel. They were able to stand, so they pulled out their guns and began to cautiously creep through the tunnels, doing their best to not make that much noise despite the water. Eventually they came to a corner in the tunnel, and beyond it, they heard voices. That… wasn’t supposed to happen deep into the sewers below Derry. There shouldn’t be anyone there…

They walked around the corner to see an odd sight. The room was still covered in black gunk dripping down the walls, but it didn’t smell as fowl as they would have expected. The sewers looked like sewers from a fantasy story, large pipes with a foot of water idly trickling through them. There were barred gates, and in this particular room, there was even some dripping pipes from the ceiling. It sounded like it was raining.

But that wasn’t the weirdest part about this sewer room beneath the Neibolt house. The Losers Club was there.

They were draped around the room in various places with various levels of hazard associated with it. The Tozier brat was hanging about 7 feet off the ground on the large pipe dripping from the ceiling and he was doing chin ups while the Kaspbrak kid was sitting cross legged under the pipe and leaning his chin against his good arm (but the other arm no longer had it’s now very known ‘lover’ cast despite the fact that it had been less than the required time to wear it) as he lazily counted for the other teen.

The newcomer, Hanscom, was leaning against the wall and having a hushed conversation with the Hanlon kid. The conversation immediately cut off as the light of their flashlights entered the room and they turned to stare at the invading police. Now that they got closer, it was easier to see where the other three members of the club were. The Uris kid was leaning against the wall a couple of feet away from the entrance and staring at them with a challenging glare in his eyes. His chin was jerked up ever so slightly so that he could look down his nose at them. He was wearing a leather jacket over his button up tucked into some khaki shorts, which seemed almost out of place until they looked at the other kids.

They were all dressed as you’d expect a teen just entering high school to dress, but they all had some element of leather on them. Kaspbrak had a leather armbrace on his formerly broken arm, Tozier was looking like a flamer with his leather pants, and Hanscom and Hanlon had cords wrapped around their wrists. But that still left two members unaccounted for.

They all slowly filed into the room, slightly past Uris, and then the last two were revealed. There was a large pipe opening in the centre of the room. A slope lead up to the well like hole, and Denbrough was leaning against the edge of the well while Miss Marsh was perched on the edge of it at Denbrough’s left. That probably had some symbolic meaning, but it really just gave the officers a heart attack because _she could fall in and die_. She had her necklace on a leather cord around her neck, and oddly enough, Denbrough was wearing fingerless leather gloves. Why the leather? Was it in some attempt to look like a gang? That wasn’t a good thing to aspire to be.

 

Denbrough was staring at him with unreadable eyes. Marsh’s were easy to read – there was almost an odd hunger and glee as she stared at them with a soft grin on her face – but Denbrough was stony. You could see the boredom in Tozier and Kraspbrak’s eyes as well as the slight curiosity in Hanscom and Hanlon’s eyes. Even the condescending look in Uris’ eyes was obvious. But Denbrough, well Officer Collins didn’t know what to do with that.

“You guys shouldn’t be down here kids.” He settled on saying. All of their eyes flickered over to stare at him. “We are looking for the missing children and the sewers are not a safe place for you guys to play.” Tozier snorted as he abruptly let go of the pipe and dropped down in front of Kaspbrak. That gave Officer Collins an additional heart attack because a drop from that height with the way that he landed it would have easily broken his ankles, but the kid still appeared to be fine?

He glared at them, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared the group of officers down. “We’ve been coming down here for months, old man. It’s none of your concern.” He scowled, blatantly displeased with how condescending the officers sounded. Officer Collins hurried to backtrack.

“We just mean that there’s still a child predator on the loose. Being down in a high-risk area is not a good idea. You might come across some things that you don’t need to see.” He said gently, holding the hand not holding the flashlight up in the air in a placating gesture. The kids turned to look at Denbrough as one, seemingly waiting for his okay to make their next move. They were too synchronized. It was… unsettling.

Denbrough had been unsettling when he’d first taken his statement, but now the unsettling feeling had grown. In some lights, it was like the children’s eyes glowed. But that couldn’t be right, that wasn’t physically possible. It was just his mind playing tricks on him. Now it was like these kids – who by all logic should not have become friends, let alone this close – were a hive mind that actually controlled the town. There was something seriously wrong with this entire situation.

Denbrough leaned forward, standing up and moving towards them. They subconsciously took a step back at his approach before catching themselves and realizing that they were backing away in fright from a child. “We have this place mapped out pretty well. Perhaps we can help you. I think that there’s something you want to see.” Bill said simply, looking up at them, his hand held out in an obvious invitation. Uris and Tozier looked angry while the others just looked shocked. Marsh took in all in stride as she hopped down from her perch and grinned playfully at them.

“Come on! It’s easy to get lost down here.” She called cheerfully, beginning to bounce out through one of the many sewer openings. The others heaved larges sighs but dutifully followed the girl and Denbrough. Officer Collins shot a glance over at the others behind him before reluctantly moving to follow the girl and her friends deeper into the sewers. This smelled fishy.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when Uris slid on past him, having forgotten that the other kid had settled behind them in the little ‘confrontation’. They didn’t have to go much farther into the tunnels before they came across what the kids had wanted to show them. There was a large cavern of a room and it was filled with corpses and other trash, including a trailer from what looked like a circus. By the entrance and just in front of the group of kids, was a mangled corpse of a tall man dressed like a clown.

“That’s him.” Denbrough said as he stared down at the bloody body dispassionately. “That’s the clown that kidnapped me. Officer Collins stared wide eyed at the massacre in front of him. Behind the clown was a pile of children’s bodies strewn about and semi submerged in the gross water. The other officers looked over his shoulder to see what Denbrough was talking about and he vaguely heard one of his officers bend over and throw up at the sight of the rotting flesh. Officer Collins wanted to throw up too.

Uris wrinkled his nose at the sight, but he didn’t comment as he moved over to stand slightly behind Denbrough. “I do believe that this is what you came down here for? I suggest you don’t come back here without one of us… you might get lost and who knows what will happen then.” He said stiffly, staring right into Officer Collins’ eyes. He blinked, struck dumb by how nonchalant these kids were about the dead bodies.

They shouldn’t even be down in the sewers. What the actual fuck. Officer Collins couldn’t form words for what he was currently feeling, so he simply turned around and joined the other officer in throwing up.

 

They’d found the missing kids and the murderer. How they were going to get the bodies back to the surface was another matter – and then there was still the matter of dealing with the group of kids that apparently spent their free time playing in the sewers where they knew that rotting corpses lay.

He shot a look over at Denbrough’s bored expression.

Maybe it would be better to just leave it alone. Ignoring the kids of Derry was a well used tradition. Maybe there was a reason for that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone new comes to a newly establish Derry

Let’s just start off with the fact that Danny Olsen did not want to move to Derry. In fact, he’d been violently opposed to the idea of moving anywhere but moving to Derry was especially bad.

Derry was small and too far away from his friends. To a teenager, hours was simply too far, especially since he couldn’t drive yet. That just sucked. Plus, his uncle was the Sheriff of Derry, so he wouldn’t be able to have any fun whatsoever.

It wasn’t like Danny was a bad kid, alright? Danny studied hard and got average grades. He didn’t bully people, and he never stood out. His parents were teachers (they were going to other countries to teach English because the money would be better there, but they didn’t want to force him to move out of the country – thank God for small mercies) and weren’t well known by the community. Nobody cared about the Olsens because they were nobodies. Just the same as everyone else in their own small town in the northern part of Maine.

But now he was going to be the nephew of the new Sheriff and no one would want to get to know him. Add onto that the reputation of being the new kid in a small town. That wasn’t even mentioning the fact that Derry was messed up! His friends had done some research when he’d told them that he was going to be forced to move because the uncle that was supposed to watch him was the new Sheriff of a small town called Derry, and what they found out was fucking awful.

It turns out that his uncle had been transferred because the previous Sheriff had been _murdered_. What the fuck? And he was murdered by his own kid. That was already all kinds of messed up without including the fact that nobody noticed for days because they were too busy trying to _find a clown that had kidnapped and probably murdered over 20 kids_. And his parents thought that it would be a good idea to live there? Sure the disappearances had stopped, but did that mean it was safe? They still hadn’t publicized anything about finding the killer, and if they had found the clown, his uncle certainly hadn’t told him anything about it.

But Danny didn’t get a say in this, and he was to move to Derry halfway through the second semester of his first year of high school. They would have let him finish his first year, but his parents weren’t able to push off their move until later. It was unfortunate, and Danny didn’t quite understand it, but that was just how it is This was what he had to deal with.

First day of school, and he’s nervous. He doesn’t have the security blanket of knowing anyone at the school, and he hasn’t even heard any rumours yet. He was the new kid – would people even want to approach him? Would anyone even offer their help? He didn’t know, because at his old school, he would have been left to fend for himself. Maybe Derry worked differently?

He walks to school, not wanting to get dropped off by the Sheriff and have everyone stare even more. The receptionist is nice, although her eyes seem to watch him as he left with a slightly fearful gaze. Not like she was afraid of him, but _for_ him. It was even more unsettling.

Because that was something that the people in Derry did; stare. They stared at him as he went down the streets and whenever he wasn’t cooped up inside his house. He was new, and people knew that. It was odd, having so many adults watching you do mundane things. There were police officers everywhere, and everyone he talked to told him to stay away from the quarry. He hadn’t been planning on going near there anyways, but apparently it was the end of the sewers where bodies had been allegedly found? There was no way that he was going near the quarry now.

 

When he walks into his class, every single eye was trained on him. He did the obligatory spiel about where he was from and why he’d moved here, and everyone had said hello and welcomed him to Derry. Nothing was really out of the ordinary after that. High school was high school, and that really didn’t change all that much. The people and the rules might differ, but at the end of the day, it was all the same anyways.

In his first class he’d had the misfortune of being assigned group work. Luckily for him a small group of kids had decided that they were going to adopt him. “It’s a good thing that you didn’t come here earlier.” Jeremy – a lanky boy with a thin speckling of freckles across his nose – told him as they filled out a couple worksheets with answers from the textbook. “A couple months ago the town was really in shambles. You wouldn’t have wanted to get in the middle of that.”

Marissa – Jeremy’s closest friend since like kindergarten; a short girl with thick brunet hair and a kind smile – nodded emphatically at him as she pointed her pen at him. “It really wasn’t a good time for any of us. The kids still hadn’t been found, and nobody knew what was going on.”

“Yeah. There was a lot of things going on in Derry. Come eat lunch with us. We’ll tell you everything you need to know to survive here.” Ethan – Marissa’s boyfriend – told him before bringing the rest of the group back on topic.

 

It turns out the group of three ate lunch out in front of the school. They had a bench that they commandeered every day, and they invited him to join them from now on. “It does well to have a group,” Ethan pointed out, “there’s less of a chance that people will pick on you if you’re not alone.”

“There was a kid that moved here just last year. Ben Hanscom. He didn’t have friends until the summer – when it all happened.” Marissa jumped in, viciously tearing into her sandwich and looking at him with earnest but intense eyes. “And that’s kind of what we wanted to talk to you about. I’m sure that you know, that a bunch of kids that went missing over the course of last year. But what is only known to the population of Derry is that they found the thing that did it.” She leaned in, whispering and glancing around as if this was something taboo to talk about.

Danny leaned in to as Jeremy took over the story while Marissa stuffed her face. “Bill Denbrough’s little brother had gone missing a little over a year ago, and everybody knew that his entire family had been messed up by it. Even Bowers gave him a break because of it.”

“Wait… wasn’t Bowers the name of the old Sheriff?” Danny asked in confusion, beginning to dig through his own lunch bag as he listened intently to what these three were telling him. It was already more than his uncle had said. His uncle had just gotten a pinched look on his face whenever he’d ask about it and then tell him to drop it. He lived here now though, so he thinks that he has a right to know what happened. At least what was public knowledge.

Jeremy nodded. “Yup. His kid was a real piece of work. Bowers had a whole gang of goons that he used to harass anyone he didn’t like. He was something awful, and it really didn’t surprise anyone to hear that he’d killed his dad. There’d always been something off about him.” He nodded, jerking his chin up as if gesturing to something. “The Bowers Gang bullied one group of kids in particular though.”

“They called themselves the Losers Club. The original members were Bill Denbrough, Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, and Stan Uris. Then over the summer the new kid Ben Hanscom and Beverly Marsh suddenly got real close and they were included. Bowers ended up self destructing and murdering the entire gang along with his father. In their absence, some people tried to take over their kingdom.”

Marissa nodded and shifted over so that she could speak lower and closer to Danny. “The Bowers Gang practically ruled this town. People wanted that power, and after the summer in all the unrest, things got a little shifty. But first day of school really cemented the new powers.” She shifted ever so slightly so that Danny could look just past her shoulder. “That’s them; the Losers Club. I know it sounds like something out of a stupid movie, but you don’t mess with them. Bill Denbrough? He can drop anyone in less than a second.”

Danny didn’t know whether he should believe her or not. There was a group of kids that were lounging across the stairwell leading up to the school entrance, but they didn’t exactly look like much. They looked like any other high school student really. “Bill Denbrough, the one with the leather jacket and the undercut. He’s the leader and the one you have to watch out for. He has a stutter, but don’t say anything about it. He’s had it ever since his parents got into a car crash before his little brother was born. Don’t underestimate him though, his stutter says nothing about him.”

Ethan cut in, avoiding sliding in beside Marissa and pointedly looking at Danny’s face. “The heavier kid is Hanscom. Don’t talk about his weight. Just don’t. He doesn’t look like much – none of them do – but everyone learned the hard way not to mess with them. They survived Bowers. That’s enough for most people. Anyways, Hanscom is dating Marsh, the girl with the red hair. Uris is the one who looks all prim and proper. We think he has some sort of OCD, and he’s dating Denbrough. Don’t say anything about them or Kaspbrak and Tozier. They ain’t like your normal fairies. Tozier can pack just as good a punch as Denbrough and Kaspbrak is even worse - that kid has medical knowledge man.”

“Kaspbrak is the one with a fanny pack. It’s stupid, but that kid has had medical problems for years. He talks a mile a minute and is the only one that can curb Tozier’s mouth. I’ve never heard anyone else speak like Tozier.” Marissa admitted. “They rule the school in the wake of the Bowers Gang’s demise. No one really knows how they became like this, but there’s something off about them.”

Jeremy crossed his arms and leaned against the cement wall beside the bench, keeping his eyes trained on the Losers Club who were just basking in the sunlight and laughing. “I heard that Denbrough was the one who lead the police to the murderer. He was the last one that saw the killer, and when the police found the clown, what they found was just another corpse. They’re dangerous, Olsen. If you know what’s good for you, you won’t pry much more into this.”

Now this entire thing sounded way too farfetched to be real. What on earth was this town? Gangs? Murder? The _losers_ ruling the town and having something be _off_ about them? It was just unheard of. It went against the natural order of things. “But what about the murderer? You said he was dead right?” Marissa and Ethan exchanged a look.

“Look, none of us know all that much about this – you just don’t talk about this stuff. Especially here.” Marissa started nervously, wrinkling the brown paper bag in her hands as she clenched it tightly. “But the police were investigating the sewers, and I heard that the Losers Club were the ones to lead them to where the clown had stashed the bodies. Apparently, the clown was there too, but his skull was bashed in.”

“I’m just saying that the last person that saw this killer alive was Denbrough. The likelihood of him…” Jeremy trailed off, looking intensely uncomfortable at their current topic of conversation. “Just… just fly under the radar. Do your best to not be alone with any one of them. You’re new, so they’re bound to take an interest.” In that moment, Denbrough met Danny’s eyes as he caught him staring. In that one instant, Danny understood what the other three were talking about.

There was something off in that teen’s eyes. They seemed to bore into his very soul, and right before he looked away, he’d swear that there was a flash of yellow in his irises. But that wasn’t humanly possible, and monsters didn’t exist. Danny looked down at his lap before taking a large bite of his own sandwich. He didn’t want to talk to any of the so called ‘Losers Club’ so he didn’t think it would be all that much of an issue. It’s not like they’d actually go out of their way to get him… right?

 

* * *

 

For the rest of the week, Danny thought that he was in the clear.

He hadn’t so much as seen any of the Losers Club at all, and no one else in the school had bothered him after he started hanging out with Marissa, Ethan, and Jeremy. He hadn’t asked his uncle about the things that occurred in Derry anymore, and he didn’t talk about it with the others. He had been very tempted to go to the library – apparently Hanscom was quite the bookworm and that was how he’d gotten involved in the entire mess during the summer – but he didn’t want to push his luck.

What is Hanscom was there? What if the answers that he got weren’t the ones that he wanted?

So he did the safe thing and just avoided mentioning the mysteries of Derry just like every other student. He thinks that he fit in rather well actually. He thought that he was doing really good with adjusting to living in Derry, he hadn’t even told his friends anything about it either. He didn’t tell them about the Bowers Gang or about the Losers Club or about how they found the murderer and that he’d been murdered too. They knew that some things had gone down in Derry, and they were concerned about how tight lipped he was being, but they left it alone after a while. He refused to talk about it.

That probably just worried them more. Danny hoped that they would drop it though, so that they don’t look further into it. It was one of those hush hush small town secrets that you weren’t meant to find out. And when you did…

 

But apparently it hadn’t been good enough because on Friday as he was walking home from school, he’d been caught about a block away from the usual route that other students took. Him and his uncle lived out of the way to avoid prying eyes, and he often walked through woods to get home. It wasn’t a big deal – he didn’t mind nature. But what wasn’t good was the fact that no one would go looking for him here. No one would be able to witness anything that happened.

Danny still wasn’t all that familiar with the town yet, and the Losers Club knew this. There was no running away without the danger of getting lost. And so that’s where they caught him; walking through the woods.

They were all already there, gathered around one area at the side of the path. Marsh and the fat one were sitting under a big tree and giggling while whispering softly to each other. There was a black boy standing leaning against a tree on the other side of the path along with a sharply dressed boy who was holding the leather jacket that he’d seen Denbrough in on his first day. They were watching him with careful eyes; weary eyes. Kaspbrak was sitting on one of the lower hanging branches and leaning against the trunk of the tree while Tozier stood below him.

Denbrough stood in the middle of the path, his arms crossed over his chest and his mouth set in a hard line. Danny gulped as he stopped a foot or two in front of the other teen. “Uh… hi?” he said awkwardly as he stared down at Bill. This teen – the leader of the group of teens that everyone seems to be afraid of – was shorter than him. Danny was a tall kid, but he wasn’t really all that accustomed to looking down at people. Everyone was usually around his eye level, but the teens Bill, Kaspbrak and Hanscom appeared to have not shot up with any growth spurts over the summer. Although Bill’s difference in height was obvious while the other to had been sitting down.

Bill raises a single sculpted eyebrow at him before beginning to speak. “Danny Olsen. M-moved here just last wuh-week to live with the n-n-new Sheriff; his uncle.” He stated suddenly after a moment of awkward staring.

Huh, so it turns out that he really does have a stutter.

It doesn’t make him seem any less terrifying.

 

“Yes.” He said, backing up slightly as Uris shifts. He was outnumbered and outclassed. He didn’t really understand what was happening right now.

“We’d just like to give you an official welcome to Derry.” Marsh calls over, grinning at him as she leaned into the fat kid's side. “You know the whole ‘welcome to Derry and we hope you enjoy your stay’ spiel. Make everything official and all that.” Her grin was all teeth, and thoroughly terrifying. He’d heard about the rumours that they used to tell about her. With a face like that he would have believed them in a second.

Denbrough rolled his eyes. “Y-yes. There are m-many things that you probably d-don’t understand ab-b-bout Derry yet.”

Tozier snorted, “yeah, like the boogie man.” He snickers loudly, much to Kaspbrak’s apparent displeasure. At his remark Kaspbrak rolled his eyes and shot a glare over at Tozier.

“Can’t you be serious for one fucking minute, Richie? Try giving a fuck for once!”

“Giving a fuck doesn’t really go with my outfit.” Tozier said as he twirled around a baseball bat. He was still leaning against the tree all casual like. He hadn’t even bothered to look at him this entire time. He was holding the baseball bat loosely in his left hand, just swinging it around almost absentmindedly. This wasn’t the first time that he had subtly threatened someone like this. His movements spoke of an uncomfortable familiarity with the weapons. But maybe he just played baseball?

Well, there was always hope.

 

“Beep Beep, Richie!” Kaspbrak yelled, his face going a bit blotchy with frustration. But then he turned to look down at Danny with an oddly earnest expression on his face. “In all seriousness though, watch your step alright? Stay out of trouble and you should be fine. Here in Derry we don’t want that much attention, so don’t mention anything to people out of town. The last thing we need is for this place to be a tourist attraction. But… Richie wasn’t exactly wrong either.”

Tozier nodded, still twirling around his baseball bat. Uris stepped forwards to take over the explanation then. “There are things happening in Derry that you can’t ever understand. The old monster is dead, and now we’re here.” Uris was right, he didn’t understand. What was this talk about monsters? Did they mean the clown or…?

Denbrough shot Uris a look, and the taller teen inclined his head before taking a step back. “Yes. B-but that doesn’t concern y-you. Just… k-kuh-keep quiet. Don’t go looking into things. You won’t like what you find.” And apparently that was all, because as if on a cue, the others stand up and begin to walk past him, in the other direction. Tozier helped Kaspbrak out of the tree and then they were gone. Marsh gave one more chilling smile before rushing off laughing with the others. Denbrough was the last to walk past, his shoulder lightly brushing Danny’s as he walked calmly down the beaten path.

 

Danny ran the rest of the way home and he didn’t leave the house for the entire weekend.

For the rest of his stay in Derry, he'd be looking over his shoulder.


End file.
